Martinsburg daily gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1887-1887, 1887-05-02

Z
up il Lad books and newspapers Of this land
Ii he last twenty years.
Now. it is amid such circumstances that
put this morning question of overmaster-
ing Importance to You and your families
What books and newspapers shall we reada
You see l group them together "A news
paper is only book in svifter and more
portable shape. and the same rules which
viii apply to book reading viii apply to
newspaper reading. WhaB shall we readi
Shall our minds be the receptacle of every
ting that an author has mind to writes Shall
there he no distinction between the tree of
life and the tree of death? Shall we stoop
dow, and drink out OF the trough which the
wickcdn6ss Of men has filled with pollution
aild shame! Shall we mire in impuIity and
chase fantastic will o. the wisps across the
swamps when we might walk IN the bloom
ing gardens of Gods Oh. no! For the sake of
our present and everlas ing welfare we must
make ai intelligent Ciiri tian choice. Stand
inc as we do chin deep IN fictitious literature,
tie first question that many Of the young
people are asking me Is: "Shall we read
noyelsgn reply: There are novels that are
pure, good, Christian, elevating to the heart
and ennol,ling to the life. But / have still
further to say that believe that ninety-nine
out OF 100 novels in this day are baleful and
destructive to the last degree. A pure work
Of fiction is history and poetry combined. 1t
is a histor,, OF things around us with the
licenses and the assumed names of poetry
The world can never pay the debt which it
owes to such fiction writers as Hawthorne
and Mckenzie, and LandoR and Hunt, and
Arthur and Marion Harlanda and others
whose names are familiar to all The follies
I,n@f
by Miss Edgeworth. The memories of the
past were never more faithfully embalmed
than in the writings Of Walter Scott.
Cooper's novels are BEAUTIFULLY redolent with
the breath Of the seaweetl and the air of the
American forest. Charles Kingsley has
smitteli ne morbdity OF the world, and led
d great many to appreciate the poetry of
sound health, strong muscles and fresh air.
Thackerav did grand work in caricaturing
the pretcnders to gentilfty and high blood.
Dickens has built his own monument III his
books, which are an everlasting plea for the
poor and tho anathema of injustice. Now, Isay,
books like these, read at right times, and read
In right proportion with other books, cannot
help but be ennobling and purifying; but, alas
for the loathsome and impure literature that
has come upon this country III the shape OF
novels, like freshet OVERLOOKING all the
banks os decency and common sense! They
arc coming from some of the most celebrated
publishing houses of the country. They are
coming with recommendations OF some of our
re igious newspapers. They lie on your center
table to curse your children and blast with
their internal fires generations unborn. You
And these books i'll the desk of the school
miss, in the trunk of the young nlan, IL tn,
steanb. ut cabin. on the table Of the hotel
reception room. You see light in your
child's room late at night You suddenly go
III and say: What are you doings' II am
reading" what are you reading|. "a
book" You look at the book; it is bad
book. "Where did you get it?' II bor-
roweG it." Alas, there are always those
abro; i who would like to loan your son or
daughter bad book Everywhere, every
where an unclean literature. / charge upon
it the destruction of 10000 immortal souls,
and bid you this morning wake up to the
magnitude of the theme / shall take all the
worlds literature good novels and bad,
travels true and false, histories faithful and
incorrect legends beautiful and monstrous,
all tracts, all chronicles, all epilogues, all
family, CITY, state and national libraries and
pile them up in a pyramid of literature and
then I shall bring to bear upon it some grand,
glorious, infallible, unnlistakable Christian
principles. God help me to speak with refer
ence to my last account and God help you to
listen.
charge you, in the first place, to stand
aloof from all books that give false pictures
of human life. Life is neither tragedy nor
farce. Men are not all either knaves or
heroes. Women are neither angels nor furies.
And yet, if you depended upon much Of the
literature of the day you would get the idea
that life, instead of being something earnest,
something practical. is a fitful and fantas-